Versu Looks Like It Will Contain A Murder Mystery Story

I’m about to embark on a series of posts about accounts, Linden Lab and their forthcoming interactive story of Versu. Inara Pey, with her eye firmly on the ball has noticed that websites have appeared for Dio and Versu. I’m not so much interested in Dio, although I might be once it gets going. However Versu is something I like the look of and I’ve been digging around the website for Versu. At first glance it seems bereft of information, but a closer look reveals that Versu has a cut down version of the Second Life terms and conditions, a DMCA link and a very handy FAQ.

Now unless that FAQ is some sort of boiler plate FAQ, it reveals some clues to the storyline and content. There are plans for three stories at launch, a ghost story, a romance story and a murder mystery story set in Regency England, so that should be the pre Victorian era of the 1800’s. The murder mystery story appears to be leading the way with information more specific to that story in the FAQ, where we’re informed that you will be able to play a female character, Lucy or Miss Bates.

Now Lucy and Miss Bates are detective characters according to the FAQ, so I would imagine the aim is to solve the crime, however maybe it isn’t and the aim is to fling bread rolls at Mr Quinn. The thing to bear in mind is that the story is interactive with several endings and will develop depending upon the actions you set for your characters, so this is something you can play more than once.

There will be achievements for your character which will be recorded on a page listing but it looks like these will be achievements for that particular game, as these achievements are obtained by performing tasks in the game, so they don’t look like they will be account specific.

The fact that there is no save game feature suggests that the stories won’t be of epic proportions, initially at least.

Versu is a new product so at launch it looks like it will only be browser based, with no option for it to run on a Tablet, although there are plans for a Tablet version to be released later. There will be no multiplayer option initially, but there may be plans to add this functionality and allow you and a friend to each select a role and initially you won’t be able to create your own character but there are plans to not only allow you to create your own character, but to also define expressions, appearance, personal preferences and uique dialogue, which is probably why there’s a DMCA link, this adds an extra dimension to this product that could turn out very interesting.

However, there does appear to be a flaw for me personally in the product, that is similar to the apparent flaw with Dio, they both appear to be tightly linked to having a Facebook account, although Versu is not quite as tightly linked to Facebook as Dio appears to be, it still looks like a very strong link. I’m not quite sure why this is the case with a Linden Lab product but I think I’ll delve into this more in another blog post.

Personally, Versu is the new Linden Lab product that has most caught my eye, even now without screenshots or seeing it in action, it appeals to me as the most interesting product, I’m not knocking the other products, it’s just that Versu is the most personally appealing to me. I’m looking forward to seeing it in action.

Yeah. I was torn between pushing it out for the sake of clearing the decks of draft posts from 2012 or leaving it for more detailed investigation, and opted for the former without going back for a really close look yesterday before being more NYE socialable.